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Murder charges filed in OC homeless killings case

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This photo provided by the Anaheim Police Department shows Itzcoatl Ocampo. The Orange County DA announced he plans to file four murder charges against Ocampo. Anaheim Police/AP

The Orange County district attorney announced the DA plans to file four murder charges with special circumstances lying in wait and use of a deadly weapon against Itzcoatl Ocamp, the 23-year-old Yorba Linda man accused in the serial slayings of four homeless men since Dec. 20.

Though the L.A. Times had reported Ocampo's family members said he had seemed mentally ill since he returned from the Iraq war, the DA said he didn't seem mentally ill to them.

“This 23-year-old young man was a vicious killer, that he had in his mind a desire to kill people and that he followed through with that. And that he was a monster and that he was a terrible threat ... particularly to the homeless people in our county," said Orange County DA Tony Rackauckas, according to KPCC's Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, who's at the presser.

The charges carry a minimum of life in prison, and the DA said he hasn't decided whether to seek the death penalty.